Conventional signaling message distribution in a telecommunications network occurs between a signal transfer point and a service control point. Typically, a signal transfer point would send all of its signaling messages to a single service control point in a solitary routing back-up type configuration. If the single service control point failed, a back-up service control point would process all of the signaling messages from the signal transfer point. For a load share routing back-up type configuration, signaling message translations are alternated equally between two service control points. For a dominant replicate routing back-up type configuration, global title translations result in messages being sent to the first available service control point, typically among a group of four service control points. These configurations still run into problems with regard to congestion and reliability. With the growing amount of service control point services and service transactions within the telecommunications network, many customers have the need for more flexible and customized network engineering capabilities to reduce the possibilities of congestion and reliability. Therefore, it is desirable to provide an improved routing back-up type configuration to meet the increased demands of telecommunications customers.